August 18, 2011 - Northrop Grumman Corporation marked
the completion of the 50th center fuselage for the F-35
Joint Strike Fighter during a ceremony at the company's
Palmdale Manufacturing Center.

Company officials praised employees for delivering the
center fuselages on time and on budget – achieving a
significant milestone early in the program while
maintaining high standards of performance and
affordability.

"Completing the 50th F-35 center fuselage is something
to be proud of; it's a sign of a team that is committed
to getting a very difficult job done, and done right,"
said Mark Tucker, vice president and F-35 program
manager for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector.

"I'm proud that we've reached such an important
milestone, but I'm even more proud of how we've done it.
This team is always identifying ways to do an even
better job of building the world's most sophisticated
multirole fighter. And, 50 ship sets in, it's working."

On
July 20, Northrop Grumman employees gathered to mark the
completion of the 50th center fuselage for the F-35
Joint Strike Fighter. The event took place at the
company's Palmdale (Calif.) Manufacturing Center.

As a
principal and founding member of the F-35 industry team led by
Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman is responsible for the design
and production of center fuselages for all three variants of
F-35 aircraft: conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL); short
takeoff, vertical landing (STOVL); and a carrier variant.
Northrop Grumman completes the F-35 center fuselages – the core
structures around which the aircraft are built – at the Palmdale
facility. The center fuselages then are shipped to Lockheed
Martin in Fort Worth, Texas, where they are integrated into the
rest of the aircraft.

In
addition to producing the F-35 center fuselage, Northrop Grumman
also designs and produces the aircraft's radar and other key
avionics, including electro-optical and communications
subsystems; develops mission systems and mission-planning
software; leads the team's development of pilot and maintenance
training system course materials; and manages the use, support
and maintenance of low-observable technologies.

Completion
of the 50th center fuselage is the latest in a series of
milestones the program has achieved in 2011. In March, the
company launched its Integrated Assembly Line, a groundbreaking
system that incorporates automation in the process of center
fuselage production. More recently, the company completed the
first center fuselage for the Royal Netherlands Air Force, the
second such delivery for an international customer.

"Programs that are committed to quality and affordability
are the ones that can demonstrate momentum and success, and
that is especially true of the center fuselage work Northrop
Grumman does for the F-35 program," said Duke Dufresne,
sector vice president and general manager of the Strike and
Surveillance Systems Division of Northrop Grumman's
Aerospace Systems sector. "Day in and day out, through our
first 50 fuselages, we've made these concepts central to our
work, just as we're doing on all our programs. Our customers
and our war fighters, deserve no less."